Early Academics, should you or shouldn't you?
There are many schools of thought on whether one should introduce early academics. My own take is, "it depends", so this is going to be a totally unscientific post you must take with a pinch of salt. After 5 kids, I realise I should teach based on their personal abilities and interests and follow their lead. Apart from that you should also:
1. Teach with love
2. Don't push your child to your speed or standards (go back to about following their lead)
3. Don't teach a 2 year-old like you teach even a 4 year-old, what more a seven-year old like they do in kindy nowadays. (assuming these are your average 2 year-olds)
4. Many roads lead to the same ending, you don't have to stick to one method.
5. Have fun!
Let's just take language as an example;
In their early years, 0-3, children "absorb" the stimulation present in the environment they are in. This is why you don't have to "teach" a child to speak, they simply learn it on their own from listening from inside the womb to everyday interactions. Montessori called this the absorbent mind and encouraged parents to guide the child from the day he is born. So, firstly they need aural stimulation.
As baby's sight gets clearer and they gain control over their limbs, reaching out for things and walking, they will in turn be able to explore more of their surroundings. You should have been reading to them before this, so by the time they are sitting down and grasping, they can hold a book and flip the pages. During this stage, let the baby see you or whoever is regularly with her reading regularly, so that this will become her habit too.
From aural words, the child will move on to symbols. I used to label the things around the house, but this is peculiar; you don't go out and see everyday things being labelled. Not that it was not helpful, but seeing the labels everyday makes them lose their novelty and the children lost their interest.
Strangely, my children learned brands- Milo, Kellogg's, McDonalds- before they learned the letters. In his book, Doman (2001) put forward that LARGE FONTS help children to learn to read. This seems to have some basis with my children because brands usually stand out from the rest of the print and sign ages are of course made large to attract customers. When you go out, point out road signs so they can learn road names and rules.
When it comes to teaching the alphabets, I find teaching the sounds more beneficial in learning reading. Names of alphabets make nice songs and is a good tool for learning to organise things by alphabetical order. I used the Montessori sandpaper alphabets and supplemented this with Waldorf alphabet stories and drawing. You can see an example of a story here and samples of drawings here . If your child can't draw, you can draw it for him while he watches Honestly, how many times can you conduct a lesson based on just sandpaper alphabets. We also made clay letters and did letter printing, among others.
While some people say you don't have to teach reading, I prefer to take a proactive approach. We used the Montessori method which outlined the steps and stages of learning to read, leaving little work for the parent to figure out what to teach as each child masters each step.
Two of my children read at 3, another at 5 and another at 7. They all love reading to bits, even the one who read at 7. He taught me a lot about patience and following the child, but that's another story.
1. Teach with love
2. Don't push your child to your speed or standards (go back to about following their lead)
3. Don't teach a 2 year-old like you teach even a 4 year-old, what more a seven-year old like they do in kindy nowadays. (assuming these are your average 2 year-olds)
4. Many roads lead to the same ending, you don't have to stick to one method.
5. Have fun!
Let's just take language as an example;
In their early years, 0-3, children "absorb" the stimulation present in the environment they are in. This is why you don't have to "teach" a child to speak, they simply learn it on their own from listening from inside the womb to everyday interactions. Montessori called this the absorbent mind and encouraged parents to guide the child from the day he is born. So, firstly they need aural stimulation.
As baby's sight gets clearer and they gain control over their limbs, reaching out for things and walking, they will in turn be able to explore more of their surroundings. You should have been reading to them before this, so by the time they are sitting down and grasping, they can hold a book and flip the pages. During this stage, let the baby see you or whoever is regularly with her reading regularly, so that this will become her habit too.
From aural words, the child will move on to symbols. I used to label the things around the house, but this is peculiar; you don't go out and see everyday things being labelled. Not that it was not helpful, but seeing the labels everyday makes them lose their novelty and the children lost their interest.
Strangely, my children learned brands- Milo, Kellogg's, McDonalds- before they learned the letters. In his book, Doman (2001) put forward that LARGE FONTS help children to learn to read. This seems to have some basis with my children because brands usually stand out from the rest of the print and sign ages are of course made large to attract customers. When you go out, point out road signs so they can learn road names and rules.
When it comes to teaching the alphabets, I find teaching the sounds more beneficial in learning reading. Names of alphabets make nice songs and is a good tool for learning to organise things by alphabetical order. I used the Montessori sandpaper alphabets and supplemented this with Waldorf alphabet stories and drawing. You can see an example of a story here and samples of drawings here . If your child can't draw, you can draw it for him while he watches Honestly, how many times can you conduct a lesson based on just sandpaper alphabets. We also made clay letters and did letter printing, among others.
While some people say you don't have to teach reading, I prefer to take a proactive approach. We used the Montessori method which outlined the steps and stages of learning to read, leaving little work for the parent to figure out what to teach as each child masters each step.
Two of my children read at 3, another at 5 and another at 7. They all love reading to bits, even the one who read at 7. He taught me a lot about patience and following the child, but that's another story.
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